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These Animal Species Have Their Own Democracies

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Think humans invented voting to make group decisions? Think again. Democracies exist all over the animal kingdom. For example, red deer vote on when to move to a new stretch of grass. When the majority of the deer stand up, the entire herd then gets up and begins to move together. Honey bees have a voting system to determine where their next hive will be. When a hive gets overcrowded, swarms set out to find a new hive site. If the bees are especially excited about a new potential hive spot, they will perform a more enthusiastic waggle dance. Scientists have found that once a spot has 15 bees hovering above it, that's when the whole hive of bees will pick up and move the family to the newly agreed upon spot.